A&M lands a law school after many false starts

Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin says the addition of a law school makes the university complete.

Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin says the addition of a law...

Nearly a century of struggling to establish a law school has finally paid off for Texas A&M University.

On Monday, the state's second-largest higher education institution will start training lawyers at the Texas A&M University School of Law at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, ending decades of wishful thinking and several failed attempts, including one as far back as the 1920s, to land a law program.

A year later, A&M officials announced the development of a strategic partnership with Texas Wesleyan School of Law, a private institution. The partnership later changed to a $73.2 million purchase deal that was announced last week.

Why the sorely-sought-after law school has eluded Texas A&M - the state's oldest public university - for so long is a mystery. Several alumni who are now lawyers said they recalled discussion about getting a law school during their student years, but nothing ever came of it. All said they would have jumped at the chance to attend a Texas A&M law school.

"I certainly would have applied and hoped I had gotten in," said Houston attorney Ken Krock, who graduated in 1993 and is a member of the Aggie Bar Association. "This is a great opportunity for A&M. We're all very excited as Aggies and lawyers."

Key elements

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Ray Bowen, A&M president from 1994 to 2002, said the key elements for developing a law school never previously fell into place: the right partnership, sufficient money and no concerns from other law schools.

Texas A&M leaders hope the law school, which will focus on patent and intellectual property, will help A&M be widely regarded as one of the nation's top 10 universities. A key element of the university's 20-year plan is to expand graduate professional programs, including a law program.

"Texas A&M views its self as a comprehensive university," President R. Bowen Loftin said. "To me, (with) the lack of a law school, we weren't complete. This completes us and gives us a full range of programs as a Tier One research university. Most top universities have a law school."

A&M first tried to establish a law school in the 1920s, when the institution was known as the Agriculture and Mechanical College of Texas. Records show there were some conversations about it but they never led to any action, said Loftin, who reviewed school archives. Another attempt was made in the 1960s by then-President Gen. James Earl Rudder. His plans failed to move forward in part because of political issues, said Loftin, an A&M student at the time.

Bowen recalled the coordinating board having done a study on Houston's South Texas College of Law in the 1960s. The consultants conducting the study recommended that South Texas become a part of A&M, but no merger materialized, he said.

In 1998, the university tried merging with South Texas College of Law under a public/private partnership. The law school would remain a private school, but would award law degrees under the A&M seal. The deal went sour after a lengthy legal fight with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the governing body of the state's public institutions.

Courts ruled that the schools failed to get the board's approval before entering into an affiliation agreement and ordered them to end it. The University of Houston and other institutions also voiced concern about the partnership.

"We thought we had agreements from the coordinating board and UH," said Bowen, A&M's president at the time. "It fell apart politically."

By 2002, Robert Gates was president and Loftin was vice president. Gates considered pursuing another partnership with South Texas College of Law. He later decided against it because he thought it was "too hard," Loftin said.

In contrast, Sharp's effort appeared to be relatively easy. When he became chancellor, he said, he began contacting law schools to gauge interest in working with the university, and Texas Wesleyan stepped forward. The 24-year-old law school, which had 35 faculty members and about 750 students, was looking to collaborate with a top university to boost its resources.

No objections

The coordinating board, the American Bar Association and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, an accrediting body, approved the deal without objections.

A&M paid Texas Wesleyan University $30 million and will pay the remaining $43.2 million in annual installments from 2014 to 2017.

The institutions also agreed to a five-year lease deal with an option to purchase the law school's property. A&M will pay $1.4 million the first year, a total of $30.8 million in annual payments over the next four years and a final payment of $11 million in 2017.

"Everything happens for a reason," Sharp said. "The stars lined up good, and we're finally able to do it."